UEFA bans Maltese player for life

LAUSANNE (AFP) – Maltese footballer Kevin Sammut has been given a life ban for trying to throw a game against Norway, European football’s governing body UEFA said Monday, citing a ruling from one of its disciplinary tribunals.

The judgment bans the 31-year-old player from “football-related activity for life for breaching UEFA’s principles of integrity and sportsmanship”, the organisation said in an online statement.

The decision on appeal, which only covers football activities in Europe, went much further than a lower tribunal ruling in August that barred Sammut from the sport for 10 years.

Both the player and UEFA’s disciplinary director had appealed against the original ruling, the statement said.

The match under investigation was a UEFA European Championship Group C qualifier in Oslo in June 2007, which Norway won 4-0.

The sport’s world governing body, FIFA, is expected to consider extending the decision to a global ban, the UEFA statement said, adding that an appeal could be lodged against Monday’s decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

UEFA’s appeals body meanwhile upheld the lower tribunal’s ruling that there was not enough evidence against two other Maltese players, Kenneth Scicluna and Stephen Wellman, to take disciplinary action, the statement said.